Telangana bandh called on Monday, bus strike withdrawn

Hyderabad: The Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC) has called for a bandh in the region on Monday in support of the demand for creation of a separate state even as employees of the State Road Transport Corporation announced withdrawal of their strike "temporarily".

On the other hand, Telangana Congress MPs, who were earlier in the day were placed in the preventive custody by police, met Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and pleaded that the cases booked against them be withdrawn.

Following talks with state Transport Minister Botsa Satyanarayana, the RTC employees' union leaders conferred with the TJAC leadership over their course of action and decided to withdraw their strike "temporarily".

Accordingly, RTC buses which had remained off the roads for the last 27 days, would start plying from Sunday.

The TJAC bandh has been called in Telangana on Monday to protest the arrest of its leaders and protesters during the rail roko agitation that began today.

The JAC said it would hold a meeting in a day or two to decide whether or not to continue the ongoing indefinite general strike that completed 33 days on Saturday.

Congress MPs K Keshava Rao and Madhu Yashki told newsmen after meeting the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister that they had requested him to withdraw the cases against Congress MPs from Telangana region.

"The MPs did not cause any damage to railway properties but still they were booked under the Railway Protection Act. It was the state police which booked the cases and not the railways," they contended.

The MPs expressed their ire against ministers from Telangana region for appealing to the striking government employees to call off their agitation.